(T) Tyre wear again

Looking at my tyres today (215/45/17 on my Abarth), they're pretty much worn down on the inside and will need replacing pretty soon.

Now this may be a tracking issue, but I do wonder about the dreaded suspension issue. Mine's a later model Stilo and I was under the impression this was essentially cured on 54 models etc.

The present fronts are Avon ZZ3 and I'm not at all impressed with their wear - they're only 7000 miles old and on the part of the tread that's not wearing due to tracking etc, they're down to about 3mm at best.

Any suggestions as to this suspension issue ?

Besides wearing your tyres out, I'd be pretty cheesed at the lack of grip as you're skating on only half your tread. It's almost always tracking so have you had your wheels tracked accurately and reliably recently? Bear in mind the figures they originally gave for Stilos has been amended

I had track rod end shot to pieces when I bought mine, the front wheel was actually waggling about and it still wasn't burning off the tread irregularly so the tracking has got to be way off to burn tread like you're experiencing or, less likely, you have major suspension/steering alignment problems

If the part of the tyre that is not worn is down to three millimetres in 7000 miles, then you are driving fairly hard, new tyres generally have between 7 and 8 mm of tread and the legal minimum is 1.6mm over the central 75% of the tyre, the outer 12.5 % on each side of the tyre is allowed to be bald. It sounds like you could have an issue with tracking but the wider wear may just be down to driving style etc. Get a good four wheel alignment done. I have Goodyears, the same size on my JTD and they have about 6 mm left after 7k miles.

....in other words barely worn in.

My 04 1.4 only has the wear on the inner drivers wheel, but it falls outside the 75%, in that 75% area I have about 5-6mm on inside. The outside 1cm is down to about 2 to 3mm. This is now at 14k.

I've done 22,000 on a set of 15" Dunlops! Rotated the tyres at about 16,000miles. 3mm on the back, and 5mm on the front! Plenty to get me through the winter, and finally get my alloys on in the sprint.

I was looking into the Avon ZZ3's, so your not happy with wear rate, but they are softer compound tyres, but whats the grip like? and do they sound pretty quiet? (thats one of their design point)

Oh, they grip alright - can't recall it ever really losing traction in the dry with them.

I genuinely though, do not hammer my car/tyres and I'm not at all impressed with their wear rate. These tyres are knackered because of the tracking issue, but if that hadn't happened then they'd still be worn out in about another 3-4000 miles, giving a lifespan of just over 10,000 miles.

I'm looking into a pair of Kumho tyres now, having read very good write-ups about them in their sector.

If you've only got a third of your tyre in contact with the road then it's going to wear out 3 times faster than normal. It's probably nothing to do with your driving style. Where you've lost 5mm on one side in 7k miles should have been 1.6mm across the whole tread in 7k miles which puts you in the "more acceptable wear" band

As an update, I had my car's tracking done today - both front wheels pointing outwards dramatically. Thanks crap roads / speed bumps

Also, when I was looking around for tyres at my usual source (http://www.mytyres.co.uk)

I also had a look on Ebay - go to the automotive section and enter your tyre size, eg 215/45/17 and you might be amazed at some of the deals to be had. Got two Kumho tyres in the aforementioned size for 115 quid plus 12 quid delivery. Only took a day to arrive, too.

Good stuff! Did you have any trouble finding someone to fit them? Some places here charge £35 per wheel for fitting our size tyres

Kumho = budget tyre hence the price. My experience of them is not good in comparison to a quality michelin, bridgestone etc....

I got 26k out of my original P6000s after rotating them at about 12k.

The only problem with having such worn ones on the back is the lack of grip they'll have in the snow compared to the fronts.
The back of mine actually got blown off course by a gust of wind last winter while driving down a perfectly straight piece of road that had a light covering of snow. Since I was driving quite quickly (about 70ish) I got a fairly massive fright and 2 new tyres (and new pants ) ASAP after that

Indeed - and one reason why if I was to get 2 new tyres on the car due to fronts being worn down, I would move the backs to the front and put the new tyres on the rear...

As for tyres branding - stick with quality! I use Bridgestones on mine, and Michelins on the Ulysse

No problem at all - National Tyres did it for me. I've had tyres done there before and I now know them or they'll often price-match online tyres prices to save me getting them delivered. Charge me about 8.95/tyre for fitting/balancing/valve and 30 quid for tracking.

Well, I've done quite a bit of research into others' opinions of them from many other car owners BBS sites and read much good about them. Their technical centre in Birmingham is also very helpful.

I don't detect any grip difference so far between them and the Avon's I had on before and I have no intention of potentially spending 120/tyre on the likes of Michelins.